The Networking Wizardry of Wicked the Musical

Introduction: Wicked the Musical

A simple search on Google reveals that there are approximately 2,780,000 results for Wicked the Musical on the web. The first few sites include Wikipedia, the official Broadway musical site, a synopsis, and, most importantly, Wicked Tickets. Wicked may be one of the most successful musical theatre productions ever, and in its three years of staging, has a reputation for being sold out immediately as tickets become available. In the UK, the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards in 2007 gave Wicked the prize in all of its four nominated categories, with over 12,000 people casting online votes in its favor.

The musical is certainly acclaimed, with three Tony Awards and a Grammy, but Wicked has “gone viral” beyond any acclaim by the mainstream press and media.

Information/Knowledge

Much information is available about Wicked, everything from scripts to illegal clips of the stage shows by digital cameras. There are numerous reviews online. Of those, I saw only one that was negative, from the intellectual Guardian Unlimited. It was followed by by a rave review from Teen Today, which concluded that “the spectators wanted to raise the roof and fly off on broomsticks!”

Many E-newsletters offer archives and regular deliveries of Wicked information. The composer, Stephen Schwartz has a glossy style highly professional version of this modality of an E-zine. Wicked star Idina Menzel puts out a newsletter with an appealing, keep-in-touch atmosphere teens enjoy. But the buzz on Wicked is not just dry information; it is knowledge that is being offered by thousands of sites relying on personal experience and intimate chat to spread the news that this is a thing worth seeing. Wicked has an incredible network of fans, with a powerful sense of community among them.

On one website, formal reviews quickly give way to reviews from fans such as “Brian of Cincinnati” or “from Jen” with comments like, “if I could pick where I had to die it would be at a performance of Wicked. If I could pick the last words I heard, it would be the last note of the song Defying Gravity.” Reviews are made into stories that start with such things as, “well, it all started with my boyfriend’s little sister Laura…” The impression is that these people know how they feel about the show, they have knowledge about it, not only information. The book Wikinomics points out that as the Net Generation (largely the Wicked fan base) “navigate[s] the hubbub, it is not surprising that the opinions of people they know (or feel they know) strongly influence their buying decisions" (p.52).

What’s the Buzz?

In The Cluetrain Manifesto on page 60 the authors discuss the appeal of chat rooms, explaining, “because it is immediate--taking place in real time--chat can enable conversation that feels more genuine, more substantial, and more human than any other Net channel.” Many chat rooms are devoted to discussing Wicked, where its fans exhibit a curious devotion to Elphaba, the main character and Wicked Witch of the West, whose skin is green and who displays unintentional supernatural powers. By the end of the musical, it is Elphaba who seems more human than the other characters. Wicked is very much about the “humanization” of that which is weird or un-appealing, and that theme extends to the methods of connection employed by its fans.

Bloggers adore Wicked, though a search on technorati under “Wicked” is not recommended by this author. Instead, searching “Wicked-the-Musical” revealed 2,358 references from blogs in English on March 15 of 2007, and 2,326 on March 26. Twelve to 15 were blogs with authority. I compared this to the classic musical Oklahoma, which had 146 blog entries. Rent, another popular modern musical which also starred Idina Menzel, had 1,279 blog entries and only two with lots of authority, still less than half of Wicked’s.

Most of these blog entries were not detailed discussions of Wicked, but only a few sentences about seeing Wicked here and with so-and-so, and how great it was. Some gushed with enthusiasm, but on a fairly shallow basis. One of the blogs with lots of authority was a detail about Halle Berry’s tan line as she walked into the theatre to see Wicked. Though these references can seem like idle gossip, they add up to quite a “buzz” about this hot new show, and they give the impression that “everyone’s” in to it. In The Cluetrain Manifesto (p. 82) the authors talk about the internet as a “real place, where people can go to learn, to talk to each other, and to do business together.” The pre-teens who probably make up many of these blog entries probably have no idea they are doing business, yet the effect of their talk is the best marketing strategy for a new internet society. Wicked itself is talked about as a place to be, a place that’s all about acceptance, just as the internet is a desirable space in the social life of these young fans.

Some forums don’t limit the social aspect of Wicked to the internet. Unlimited, a Yahoo group which claims to be the first fan organization of Wicked, also organizes events and get-togethers. So does Wicked book author Gregory Maguire's official Website. Group ticket sales are advertised, and bloggers often mention the groups that get together to go out to Wicked when it comes their way.

Video Phenomenon

A portion of the buzz and excitement that has caused Wicked to go viral is the Grammy Award-winning cast album that has reached gold record status. The combination of the soundtrack and the new technology of YouTube.com has proven irresistible to fans. On March 15, 2007, there were 1,040 homemade YouTube Wicked videos posted, and March 26 had 1,120. This is compared to only 17 YouTube videos produced about Rent. These You Tube artworks range from hilarious to elaborate, serious to truly terrible, but together they stimulate the audience to get talking about Wicked.

N-Geners as Prosumers

It is not hard to understand why young people are so attracted to the exciting storyline of Wicked; it has all the themes that appeal such as friendship, popularity, rebellion, justice and suspense. According to Wikinomics, the internet appeals to N-Geners because they equate it with their private space. Wicked the musical has succeeded in entering that private space and becoming so much more than an advertisement.

On page 19 of Wikinomics, the authors claim, ‘this new web has opened the floodgates to a worldwide explosion of participation.” On Web 2.0, fans now have access to lyrics, sheet music, scores, script, bios, interactive websites, clips of live performances, art, photos and cell phone recordings. N-Geners have responded to this by becoming prosumers. Fans practice collaborative computing by mashing the Wicked soundtrack with Japanese anime, Harry Potter, and other random movies. One of the most visited blogs writes take-offs of minor character Nessarose and creates live journal fantasies out of the Wicked/Oz setting.

Rather than fighting the illegal use of copywritten material, the producers of Wicked seem to understand that “companies need capabilities to develop relationships, sense important developments, add new value, and turn nascent knowledge into compelling customer value propositions" (Wikinomics, p.93). Through sharing of intellectual property, the Wicked corporation is driving its own wealth creation.

One of the fan websites by "princess_Steph 79" says, “this site was made for entertainment purposes only…it’s not meant to infringe on copyrights or anything. My only aim is to spread joy around the world. If you have any questions about my joy-spreading, please contact me." As Wikinomics says on page 70, “basically, people who participate in peer production communities love it.” For Wicked fans, prosumer creativity and peer productions are labors of love.

Conclusion: A Collection of Unique Individuals

The Cluetrain Manifesto reminds us (p. 27) that “more than any market that’s ever existed, the Internet is a collection of unique individuals.” The devotees of Wicked that have made it a smashing success are indeed a collection of unique individuals, and they celebrate their uniqueness through an identification with Wicked, a story about being unique, different, and unlimited.